uses.

The coal stacks were situated on a piece of waste land outside, but
adjoining, the walled-in enclosure of the Durend works. They were
accessible on all sides, but a watchman was always on guard to see that
none of the coal was stolen. This man patrolled round and round the
stacks, keeping a look-out for suspicious characters, especially, of
course, any bearing sacks or baskets which might be used to contain
coal.

It was in the middle of the night that Max and Dale, accompanied by the
faithful Dubec, appeared on the scene. The last was carrying a bulky
sack filled with firewood, Max bore a two-gallon tin of benzine, and
Dale a dummy sack which appeared to be full, but which, as a matter of
fact, contained only a light framework of wood designed to fill it out.

Dale's part of the performance began first. Waiting until the watchman
had passed, he flitted across the road to the coal stack. Then he gave
the stack a kick which sent a number of loose pieces of coal rattling to
the ground. The watchman stopped instantly, and without more ado Dale
turned and bolted down the road in full view.

As was expected, the watchman immediately gave chase, and in a couple of
minutes both men had disappeared from the scene.

Max and Dubec now emerged, and lost no time in getting to work. They
crossed the road to the end of the stack where, in the morning, work
would be resumed. There they made four caches of wood close against the
stack, covered them over with loose coal, and deluged the pile with
benzine. From these caches fuses were laid upward to the top of the
stack, and the whole covered over with more coal.

Long before the watchman had crawled back, grumbling and exhausted from
his long chase after a thief who carried a great bag of coal with an
ease that seemed extraordinary, the two other conspirators had
disappeared from the scene. An hour later they rejoined Dale and spent
half an hour in laughing over his recital of the way in which he had led
the man farther and farther afield by pretending to be always on the
point of dropping from fatigue.

The next day Dubec spent in watching the stacking of further supplies of
coal. The caches of firewood, he reported, had not been noticed, and by
the end of the day another 1200 tons of coal had been dumped against the
stack, completely enclosing them. For one day more Max held his hand,
while he worked at another scheme that was slowly maturing. Then,
immediately after ni